Leftovers

• Medevel ☛ Gifcurry is a Cool, free GIF, Meme, and GIF Video Creator.

  A GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) image is a type of bitmap image that supports animation and allows a short video or sequence of images to be played in a loop. GIFs are widely used on the internet for various purposes, including entertainment, communication, and expressing emotions.

• Science

  • Science Alert ☛ Giant Algae Made of Just One Cell Have a Clever Way of Knowing The Time

    Not as simple as they seem.

  • Science Alert ☛ Cracked Piece of Metal Heals Itself in Experiment That Stuns Scientists

    But how?

  • Science Alert ☛ Scientists Warn Vampire Bats May Soon Spread Into The Southern US

    Rabies could hitch a ride.

  • Science Alert ☛ 'Halo' Device Coming in 2025 Is Designed to Induce Lucid Dreams

    Sleep is about to become very different.

  • Science Alert ☛ Physicists May Have Found a Hard Limit on The Performance of Large Quantum Computers

    There's a problem with our clocks.

• Education

  • The Straits Times ☛ S. Korea’s primary schools braced for impact of record-low enrollment of first graders

    December 04, 2023 12:10 PM
    
    

    Experts warn of domino effect from teachers losing jobs to decline in labour force, purchasing power.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-29 [Older] Do computers make children 'dumber, not smarter'?

• Hardware

  • Hackaday ☛ Simple Chemistry To Metallize And Etch Silicon Chips

    We’ve been eagerly following [ProjectsInFlight]’s stepwise journey toward DIY semiconductors, including all the ups and downs, false leads, and tedious optimizations needed to make it possible for the average hacker to make chips with readily available tools and materials.

  • Hackaday ☛ Tiny POV Turns Right Round For Volumetric Fun

    Just when you think the POV thing has run out of gas, along comes [mitxela] to liven things up. In this, he’s taken the whole persistence of vision display concept and literally spun up something very cool: a tiny volumetric “electric candle” display.

  • Hackaday ☛ Build A Strandbeest Replica Of Your Very Own

    [Theo Jansen] is famous for his giant walking Strandbeest creations. They’re elegant, impressive, and powered by nature, and their walking mechanism is a thing of beauty. If you’ve ever wanted to build your own, [Antonio Garcia] has just the guide to get you started on the smaller scale.

  • Kevin Fenzi: Asus Hyper m.2 Gen 4 card review

    Last year I upgraded my main server from an old 1u cloud box to a new Ryzen Quiet PC. The motherboard has 2 nvme slots on it and I filled them up and mirrored them for the OS and vm storage, but my main storage setup (music, video, backups, etc) was/is a RAID of old 7200rpm spinning SATA drives. At the time I just moved it to the new sever with a note to replace it later. Recently one of the drives completely died, so I knew it was time.

• Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

  • Science Alert ☛ Feeding Your Dog Raw Meat Could Be Spreading a Dangerous Strain of Bacteria

  • New York Times ☛ Why Doctors and Pharmacists Are in Revolt

    Once accustomed to a status outside the usual management-labor hierarchy, many health professionals now feel as put upon as any clock-punching worker.

  • Come on, Jeffrey Tucker and Great Barrington Declaration, just admit you were wrong

    If there’s one constant characteristic of conspiracy theorists and cranks, it’s that they crave, almost above all else, validation. Actually, strike that. The crave, above all else, validation. They want to be proven right so badly that they constantly demand that “they” (the ones behind the conspiracy and/or their critics) “admit that they were wrong.” Failing that, they like to fantasize about a future time, when they have been utterly vindicated and, as a result, are able to exact “justice”—in actuality, retribution—on their enemies, the former I like to refer to as the fantasy of future vindication and the latter the fantasy of future retribution. You see examples of the latter, in particular, in the antivax fantasy of “Nuremberg 2.0,” in which “they”—doctors, public health officials, the CDC, the FDA, Anthony Fauci, you know, everyone antivaxxers hate—will be brought to trial for their “crimes” and then punishment meted out in the form of prison or execution by hanging, or even the guillotine. True, sometimes antivaxxers will magnanimously say that they will offer “forgiveness” or “amnesty,” but they will only “accept our surrender,” so to speak, if we science and vaccine advocates publicly “admit we were wrong.”

  • France24 ☛ Smog obscures Dubai skyline on 'Health' day at COP28 climate summit

    Dubai's glitzy skyline was obscured by a blanket of smog rated as "unhealthy" on Sunday as thousands of delegates attended the fourth day of the COP28 summit, which was designated as "health" day and where topics of discussion include air quality and the unhealthy affects of climate change.

  • The Conversation ☛ 2023-12-01 [Older] PFAS forever chemicals found in English drinking water – why are they everywhere and what are the risks?

  • CBC ☛ 2023-11-24 [Older] Salmonella illness counts traced to cantaloupe grow in Canada, U.S.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-28 [Older] Is China muddling its response to cold and flu spike?

• Defence/Aggression

  • France24 ☛ French prosecutors open probe into ‘terrorist plot’ after deadly Paris knife attack

    A man known to French authorities for radical Islamism and mental health troubles stabbed a tourist to death and wounded two other people in central Paris late Saturday night before being arrested, with prosecutors opening an investigation into a "terrorist plot".

  • New York Times ☛ Why More Chinese Are Risking Danger in Southern Border Crossings to U.S.

    Trekking the perilous Darién Gap and seeking asylum are risks worth taking for migrants from China who have lost hope in the country’s future.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-12-01 [Older] Philippines opens South China Sea monitoring base

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-28 [Older] Singer Gil Ofarim admits he lied about antisemitic incident

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-28 [Older] Star pianist Igor Levit holds event against antisemitism

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-27 [Older] Antisemitism in Germany: A 'lack of empathy?'

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-28 [Older] Germany records over 300% increase in antisemitic incidents

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-27 [Older] North Korea rebuilds border posts after scrapping deal

  • The Straits Times ☛ China's military says US combat ship illegally entered territorial waters in South China Sea

    China's military said a US combat ship illegally entered waters adjacent to the Second Thomas Shoal.

  • RFA ☛ HK activist Agnes Chow ‘considering’ asylum in Canada

    Her remarks came a day after she announced her departure from the city to pursue education in Toronto.

  • New York Times ☛ Paris Attack Suspect Pledged Allegiance to Islamic State

    The man, identified as Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab, was known to French intelligence services for Islamist extremism and psychiatric disorders.

  • RFERL ☛ Nine Dead, Including Two Soldiers, After Militants Open Fire On Bus In Northern Pakistan

    Nine people have been killed, including two soldiers, after unidentified militants opened fire on a passenger bus accompanied by a security-forces vehicle in northwestern Pakistan.

  • JURIST ☛ Federal judge declines Texas request to block immigration officials from cutting border fencing

    Chief US District Judge Alia Moses rejected a motion for a preliminary injunction from Texas on Wednesday to block the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from cutting wire fencing at the US-Mexico border.

  • The Strategist ☛ Bougainville’s quest for sovereignty and Australia’s geostrategic dilemma

    The quest for independence signals a nation’s pursuit of sovereignty and control over its internal and external affairs. Sovereignty serves as the cornerstone upon which a country’s identity, governance, security, and international relationships are built.

  • ANF News ☛ 2023-12-01 [Older] Turkey freezes the assets of 62 Kurdish individuals and 20 aid foundations abroad

  • BIA Net ☛ 2023-12-01 [Older] Turkey freezes assets of 62 individuals and 20 foundations

  • ANF News ☛ 2023-11-30 [Older] PKK and PAJK prisoners in Turkey go on hunger strike

  • ANF News ☛ 2023-12-01 [Older] Political prisoners in Turkey on day 5 of hunger strike

  • BIA Net ☛ 2023-12-01 [Older] Two citizens of Turkey who went to fight in Gaza were killed in an Israeli UAV attack in Lebanon

  • CBC ☛ 2023-11-30 [Older] How a U.S. indictment connects to an alleged India-linked murder plot on Canadian soil

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-12-01 [Older] India: Schools evacuated after apparent bomb hoax

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-23 [Older] German police target far-right 'Reichsbürger' in raids

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-24 [Older] Why Hamas and Samidoun were banned in Germany

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-12-01 [Older] NATO militaries struggling to spend their budgets

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-26 [Older] Syria Says Israel Strike Puts Damascus Airport Out of Service

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-25 [Older] At Least 10 People Killed in Syrian Government Shelling of a Rebel-Held Village, the Opposition Says

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-12-01 [Older] South Africa's anti-Israel stance alarms country's Jews

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-12-01 [Older] South Africa turns to Google in bid to curb crime

• Transparency/Investigative Reporting

  • Reason ☛ Monkey Herpes, Face Eating, and the Pork Chop Gang: How Public Records Laws Created the Florida Man

    The growing anti-transparency atmosphere in the state might make the Florida Man extinct.

  • Harvard Gutted Initial Team Examining Facebook Files Following $500 Million Donation from Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Whistleblower Aid Client Reveals

    Harvard University dismantled its prestigious team of online disinformation experts after a foundation run by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan donated $500 million to the university, a whistleblower disclosure filed by Whistleblower Aid reveals.

    Dr. Joan Donovan, one of the world’s leading experts on social media disinformation, says she ran into a wall of institutional resistance and eventual termination after she and her team at Harvard’s Technology and Social Change Research Project (TASC) began analyzing thousands of documents exposing Facebook’s knowledge of how the platform has caused significant public harm..

    In her whistleblower declaration, Donovan lays out in detail how she and her research team at Harvard’s Kennedy School (HKS) came under sudden scrutiny from the school’s dean, Douglas Elmendorf, and other Kennedy School leaders, after they started working on Haugen’s Facebook Files – a cache Donovan describes as “the most important documents in the history of the internet.”

• Environment

  • European Commission ☛ Speech at the COP28 Climate and Health Ministerial meeting by Maroš Šefčovič, Executive Vice-President for the European Green Deal

  • The Straits Times ☛ 6.9-magnitude earthquake strikes off southern Philippines

    It followed a magnitude 6.6 quake on Dec 3 and a 7.6 quake on Dec 2 in the same region.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-12-01 [Older] Brazil proposes global scheme to fund intact forests at COP28

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-12-01 [Older] COP28: What leaders say about the future of the planet

  • CBC ☛ 2023-11-29 [Older] Canadian oil and gas execs to talk up emissions reduction plans at COP28 [Ed: No, they should not even be there. Polluting country (UAE), many lobbyists, and greenwashing]

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-30 [Older] Greenhouse gases continue to rise as warming hits record

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-28 [Older] Net zero by 2050: 9 charts showing the world's progress

  • Energy/Transportation

    • TwinCities Pioneer Press ☛ Roseau pair stole electricity to run bitcoin farm, suit alleges

      Apparent mastermind Ryan Jaenicke showed off cryptocurrency mining units on YouTube

    • The Conversation ☛ 2023-12-01 [Older] Electric arc furnaces: the technology poised to make British steelmaking more sustainable

    • Gizmodo ☛ 2023-12-01 [Older] Generating AI Images Uses as Much Energy as Charging Your Phone, Study Finds

    • CBC ☛ 2023-11-29 [Older] Dow to invest $8.9 billion in Alberta's Industrial Heartland for net-zero petrochemical project [Ed: Well, "net-zero" is greenwashing propaganda and CBC should know better]

    • Gizmodo ☛ 2023-12-01 [Older] Japan Debuts Six-Story Experimental Fusion Reactor

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-29 [Older] How Colombia's dirty coal fuels Germany's energy transition

    • Bridge Michigan ☛ 2023-11-28 [Older] Feds give $31.7 million to convert ex-coal plant in Detroit to clean energy

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-12-01 [Older] Japan Aircon King Daikin Looks to Custom Chips for Energy Savings

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-30 [Older] Work Resumes on $10B Renewable Energy Transmission Project Despite Tribal Objections

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-29 [Older] Maine Residents, Who Pay Some of the Nation's Highest Energy Costs, to Get Some Relief Next Year

    • Gizmodo ☛ 2023-11-28 [Older] Google’s Geothermal Energy Project Now Powers Nevada Data Centers

    • Bridge Michigan ☛ 2023-11-28 [Older] Whitmer signs energy bills to make Michigan use clean energy by 2040

    • Engadget ☛ 2023-11-28 [Older] Google's first geothermal energy project is up and running

    • NL Times ☛ 2023-11-27 [Older] Homes with higher energy label sell more quickly and for more: Kadaster

    • Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2023-11-26 [Older] The Defeat of Public Energy in Maine Isn’t Reason for Despair

    • CBC ☛ 2023-11-24 [Older] Alberta Energy Regulator allows Suncor to proceed with wetlands expansion

    • BBC ☛ Smart meters: Almost three million still not working - BBC News

      Mum-of-11 Sharlene Peppard is one of 2.7 million customers facing incorrect bills.

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-12-01 [Older] NFT bubble has truly burst, but do they have a future?

• Finance

  • New York Times ☛ China Evergrande Gets Reprieve in Talks With Foreign Investors

    A Hong Kong judge postponed deciding whether to force a liquidation of the property developer, which defaulted in 2021 on hundreds of billions of dollars in debt.

  • YLE ☛ Housing market perks up before year-end tax change

    The housing market clearly picked up in November. According to industry experts, housing prices have bottomed out.

  • Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2023-11-27 [Older] How The Global South Managed to Call for Change in The WTO Leadership Race: Implications on Africa

  • CBC ☛ 2023-11-30 [Older] Canada's economy shrank by 0.3% in third quarter, StatsCan says

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-24 [Older] German rail union warns of fresh strikes after talks fail

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-24 [Older] German economy contracts in 3rd quarter

  • CBC ☛ 2023-11-29 [Older] The 'lipstick index' and the strength of beauty retail amid inflation

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-30 [Older] How will Signa's insolvency affect Germany?

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-29 [Older] Austrian real-estate giant Signa to file for bankruptcy

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-24 [Older] German activists launch Black Friday campaign against Amazon

  • CBC ☛ 2023-11-24 [Older] Plan to use 900 foreign workers at Windsor EV battery plant called an 'insult' to Canadian labourers

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-12-01 [Older] Vietnam reels from historic €11.4 billion corruption scandal

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-27 [Older] Germany's cabinet agrees to lift debt brake again for 2023

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-29 [Older] What exactly is Germany's debt brake?

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-28 [Older] Scholz says top court's budget ruling means 'new reality'

• AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-12-01 [Older] Walmart Latest Big Advertiser to Pull Out of Musk's X Amid Widening Concerns Over Hate Speech, Reach

  • Jacobin Magazine ☛ 2023-11-29 [Older] Kissinger in South Africa

  • Counter Punch ☛ 2023-11-29 [Older] A Nuclear Assault on South Africa’s Freedoms

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-30 [Older] Biden Hosts the Angolan President in an Effort to Showcase Strengthened Ties as Africa Visit Slips

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-30 [Older] Biden Plots Trip to Angola as Promise of Africa Trip Lingers

  • The Straits Times ☛ South Korea's Yoon set to announce Cabinet reshuffle: Media

    South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is likely to announce a major cabinet reshuffle as early as Monday, with as many as 10 ministers including the finance minister set to be replaced, Yonhap news agency reported.

  • RFA ☛ From ER doc to wild-card presidential candidate: Taiwan's Ko Wen-je

    Ko, who appeals to youth with his outspoken style, recently pulled ahead in the opinion polls.

  • Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong gov’t gives elderly centres HK$3.4 million to help seniors cast their votes in ‘patriots’ District Council race

    The Social Welfare Department has “invited” 215 elderly community centres across Hong Kong to provide special services to help seniors cast their ballots in the “patriots-only” District Council election on December 10. Each centre that does so will receive a one-off allowance of HK$20,000, the Labour and Welfare Bureau announced on Facebook (Farcebook) on Saturday.

  • JURIST ☛ EU cancels DRC electoral observation mission over security concerns

    The European Union (EU) claimed on Wednesday that they were “forced to cancel” the electoral observation mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) after planning to deploy long-term observers across the DRC. EU Spokesperson Nabila Massrali stated that the cancellation was due to “technical constraints” outside of the EU’s control.

  • France24 ☛ Israeli right-wing extremists intimidate Armenian protesters in Jerusalem

    Israeli right-wing extremists have been harassing members of Jerusalem’s Armenian community protesting the razing of an important historic site. An Australian businessman purchased the area, called Cows' Garden, back in 2021 to build a hotel there but there has been fierce opposition from the Armenian community. In recent weeks, the businessman has also participated in intimidating protesters.

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-24 [Older] North Korea quits military pact with Seoul — what next?

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-24 [Older] Slovakia: Robert Fico's cabinet includes some controversial appointments

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-12-01 [Older] Platitudes and accusations: Lavrov at the OSCE

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-12-01 [Older] Sandra Day O'Connor: Retired US Supreme Court justice dies

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-12-01 [Older] US House ousts George Santos over ethics violations

  • Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

    • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-11-29 [Older] Google accused of placing ads on sanctioned web pages

• Censorship/Free Speech

  • RFERL ☛ Iranian Rapper's Violent Rearrest For Comments In Video Sparks Outrage

    The rearrest of Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi has triggered a wave of outrage after reports that armed security agents beat the dissident while taking him into custody even though he is still recovering from being tortured during his previous prison time.

  • BIA Net ☛ 2023-12-01 [Older] Iranian actor Shailin Asadollahi detained in Turkey

  • Truthdig ☛ 2023-11-27 [Older] Elon Musk’s Crusade Against Free Speech

  • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-29 [Older] Musk Uses Expletive to Tell Audience He Doesn't Care About Advertisers That Fled X Over Hate Speech

  • BIA Net ☛ 2023-12-01 [Older] Syrian human rights activist Ahmed Katie reportedly detained in Turkey

• Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

  • BIA Net ☛ 2023-12-01 [Older] Difficult task in suppressed media environment: Media self-regulation in Turkey

  • BIA Net ☛ 2023-12-01 [Older] Journalist in exile: 'Turkey makes statements against Israel but imposes no sanctions'

• Civil Rights/Policing

  • NYPost ☛ Rep Pramila Jayapal slammed for asking for ‘balanced’ criticism in response to question on Hamas rapes

    "With respect, I was just asking you about the women and you turned it back to Israel. I'm asking you about Hamas," CNN's Dana Bash pushed back.

  • CBC ☛ 2023-12-01 [Older] Vancouver lawyer who sued neighbour over deck divider accused of pseudolegal 'paper terrorism'

  • Deutsche Welle ☛ 2023-12-01 [Older] Female Arab filmmakers' biggest challenge? Western preconceptions

• Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

  • APNIC ☛ Using timestamps inside RPKI objects to optimize RRDP-RSYNC transport switchovers

    Guest Post: A trick to help reduce bandwidth and CPU cycles for both RPKI Publication Point servers and RPKI validators when switching between RRDP and RSYNC transports.

  • Poynter Institute ☛ Vox and Condé Nast hold layoffs

    Vox Media and Condé Nast held layoffs Thursday, becoming the latest media companies to make cuts in an attempt to weather a tumultuous advertising market.

    Vox reduced its headcount by 4%, primarily laying off staff in product, design, technology and advertising; Vox.com; and The Dodo, according to company spokesperson Lauren Starke. At least 20 people were laid off, The New York Times reported.

    “This reflects continued turmoil in advertising and the need to build even more loyal audience relationships given the increasing volatility of search and social platforms, among other factors,” Starke wrote in an emailed statement.

  • Variety ☛ Layoffs Hit Condé Nast and Vox Media

    The job cuts at Condé Nast come after the company said earlier this month that it will lay off upwards of 300 employees, representing 5% of total headcount, and take other cost-reduction measures. It’s not immediately clear which areas of the company are affected by the current round of layoffs. Sources insisted that there were no layoffs at Vanity Fair on Thursday — but those may be coming in the next few days. In a post on X, Puck media reporter Dylan Byers wrote that the company’s layoffs will affect staffers “at the New Yorker (which is rare), Vanity Fair (which is being hit particularly hard), and most other brands/titles.”

  • The Guardian UK ☛ Vox and Condé Nast are latest to announce media layoffs

    Vox lays off at least 20 people in second round of cuts this year while Condé Nast to reduce staff by 5% over next few months

• Digital Restrictions (DRM)

  • The Independent UK ☛ Spotify axes 17% of workforce in third round of layoffs this year

    Spotify says it's axing 17% of its global workforce, the music streaming service's third round of layoffs this year as it moves to slash costs while focusing on becoming profitable.

    In a message to employees posted on the company's blog Monday, CEO Daniel Ek said the jobs were being cut as part of a “strategic reorientation.” The post didn't specify how many employees would lose their jobs, but a spokesperson confirmed that it amounts to about 1,500 people.

  • Breaking: Spotify will slash 17% of its workforce in the second round of cuts this year after a series of high profile investments including Joe Rogan, Call Her Daddy and Harry and Meghan costing almost $300million

  • Spotify to cut 1,500 employees in third layoff round this year

    Music streaming giant Spotify SPOT.N said on Monday that it will lay off around 1,500 employees, or 17% of its headcount, to bring down costs, after letting 600 of its staff go in January, and 200 more in June.

    After a round of job cuts at the start of the year by tech companies, some have begun reducing their workforce again, with announcements coming from Amazon to Microsoft-owned LinkedIn.

• Monopolies

  • IP Kat ☛ 2023-11-27 [Older] [Guest post] Dutch Supreme Court: when due cause has already been established, no further assessment of (dis)honest practices is required

  • Patents

    • IP Kat ☛ 2023-11-27 [Older] Clarity on the interpretation of G2/21 from the referring Board (T 0116/18) [Ed: the boards that lack any independence whatsoever]

    • IP Kat ☛ 2023-11-27 [Older] Referral on description amendments moves one step closer (T 56/21) [Ed: The EPO has only kangaroo courts of the dictator at this stage; this too will be a bogus referral, "Fixed" for the outcome the dictator wants]

  • Trademarks

    • IP Kat ☛ 2023-11-30 [Older] [Guest post] Harmonization of Uzbekistan’s legislation with international treaties. What does it offer for holders of well-known (famous) trademarks?

    • IP Kat ☛ 2023-11-27 [Older] [Guest post] Retromark Volume XIII: the last six months in trade marks

    • IP Kat ☛ 2023-11-29 [Older] TOUR DE FFRANCE vs. TOUR DE FRANCE A LA RAME : Reputation of TOUR DE FRANCE limited to cycling competitions

    • IP Kat ☛ 2023-11-30 [Older] Prosecco: a plant variety or geographical indication? Singapore Court says "both"!

    • IP Kat ☛ 2023-11-29 [Older] [Guest post] Dutch IP battle about the hyped “Crompouce®”- a croissant-tompouce hybrid

    • IP Kat ☛ 2023-11-29 [Older] How distinctive are faces?

    • IP Kat ☛ 2023-11-28 [Older] Grana Padano: PDO and collective mark protections can be cumulative in the EU (R 1073/2022-5)

    • IP Kat ☛ 2023-11-27 [Older] Can geometric signs on footwear be distinctive? Yes, says EUIPO

  • Copyrights

    • Gizmodo ☛ 2023-11-29 [Older] Google Caves, Agrees to Pay News Companies for Content in Canada

    • US News And World Report ☛ 2023-11-29 [Older] Canada Says Google Will Pay $74 Million Annually to Canadian News Industry Under New Online Law

    • Engadget ☛ 2023-11-29 [Older] Google won't block news links in Canada after all

Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal/Opinions

  • MSF Mapathon at Universitat de València

    Last week for the first time since the pandemic I attended a Mapathon in person. With the geomaticblog.net retired[1], this is my first geospatial post[2] on my own website 😱.

  • 🔤SpellBinding — ADRILMG Wordo: TWIGS

  • A Material Christening

    A new dock cap, canvas backpack, and second-hand wool jacket, procured just hours earlier, were on parade last night as I met up in the city with a dear friend. As often is the case, we discussed both everything and nothing in equal measure over some Guinness and bokbier. Having other plans, we parted ways earlier than expected. I walked my friend to their next destination, and elected to enjoy a leisurely walk to a metro stop a bit further away. The frost is quickly setting upon us, here in Amsterdam, and I was in the mood to savor the brisk night, given my warmth from my newly-acquired jacket. Overcome with the spirit of the season, I decided to stop at the Kerstmarkt by Rembrandtplein.

  • Almost done

    I finally reached the last lesson in the Intermediate Chinese Reader[1]. I'm aware this doesn't sound like much of an achievement, and in fact it isn't, I actually got to the last lesson of the first of two volumes. Last year in about 8 months give or take I managed to read the previous book, the Beginner Chinese Reader, twice the amount I did this year. I expected for this year to finish both volumes, now I can only expect to read the second one by the end of next year, and then, only the year after that, the Advanced Reader. By the beginning of last year I'd been learning Chinese for about 4 years, so why then did I start with the beginner's book, and I am still halfway through the intermediate one? Well, I did know all of the characters and most of the words in the first book, but I wanted to do the course in full, not least because of the extensive readings, and the fact that it uses traditional characters. And the readings did prove to be extensive, often to the point of tedium, which is the primary reason it has taken me so long to read them through. But no learning is without toil, and I' d much rather read repetitve texts than go through stacks of boring flashcards and try to brute-force words isolated from context into my brain. So, yeah, I will just finish this lesson this month and put it to rest for a while, focus on Russian while just working on Chinese poetry on the side. Hopefully.

• Technology and Free Software

  • The squelching effect of modern online fundamentalism

    Given "me" and "the system" are arguably nothing more than mental constructs, it seems "it is" whatever gives mere mental constructs more value than they're arguably worth.

  • Blog 1.0 reboot — P03 Tree Vampire

  • Linux, Our Savior and Redeemer

    Being in and around the Linux community allowed me to observe several things about the community that I always find interesting, a trend that I am calling "Linux Fundamentalism". Perhaps this label would have been more applicable about 5-10 years ago, because I do believe that it is wearing off more recently as people become disillusioned by Linux, but it unfortunately still applies to a large portion of the community today.

    I've spent over a decade with Linux as my daily driver before I got fed up with the userbase's hostility towards anyone else and their utter delusion of Linux being the perfect "OS" that has no problems whatsoever. It is well known outside of the community that they like to be hostile towards other Operating Systems and their users, only over time this hostility has become more acceptable as the internet and tech communities have shifted towards Open Source. Linux is seen as following the very fundamentals that are strictly opposed to the ousiders that they have always been hostile towards, and so the shift towards Open Source and the downfall of Microsoft have been viewed as a justification of the past and present hostility. It certainly didn't help that Microsoft's attitude towards Linux in the 90s and 2000s was nothing short of hatred, as this gave the Linux community something to come together on and distinguish oneself from. It is this type of hatred and self-distinguishing that forms most Fundamentalist religious sects. It is often for survival that this is done at the start, but it continues to fester and grow, causing harm to both the group and those outside of it.

  • Comments

    I've decided I will be posting a specific article that I wrote about Unix and Linux, called "Linux, Our Savior and Redeemer", and I won't be toning it down. If Linux users get offended, I don't really care anymore, because it's not my problem.

  • Also here

  • The AI Mess

    There are a lot of critiques of the current AI craze. Here are some of mine that I don't see brought up as much.

    [...]

    AI stands for artificial intelligence. Most people intuitively understand this to mean a computer program that is smart in the way that humans are smart. AI as a term in tech has generally referred to whatever technique or group of techniques we currently think gets us closest to that goal. This leads to a lot of confusion, since things that were once considered AI bear little resemblance to what we today call AI. The history of AI research is filled with false starts and initially promising techniques that eventually lost prominence when their limitations became apparent.

  • Internet/Gemini

    • It's beginning to look a lot like BBS->Antenna-mas

      Do I really want to create yet another account somewhere now that tilde.club seems permanently dead?

      No. Eff no.

      Looks like I could still upload to places that supported a Geminaut incarnation prior to oldernow, but nah.. confusion.

      Given @skyjake has made it so easy to push a Bubble post to Antenna, and Bubble is incredibly reliable, I may as well stick with what faithfully works.

      Any recommendations out there for where to put a seven meg audio file for Geminauts to listen to? While I was with tilde.club I was under the impression having something like amongst *.gmi text files might be considered a breach of politeness, if not terms.